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- [Narrator] Every year,
TxDOT assesses the pavement condition
of nearly 200,000 lane miles of roadway.
Pavement condition data has traditionally
been collected through visual surveys.
But in 2017, TxDOT began using automated data collection,
which greatly improved efficiency and safety.
But how accurate is the data?
The Texas Department of Transportation,
and researchers with Texas State University
have studied the data collected since 2017
to provide answers.
- For the automated payment data collection,
the vendor have equipment
with the 3D laser and cameras on it,
so they go collect data at highway speed.
The data quality management approach
that was designed by 20 years ago,
really based on the visual windshield survey approach.
And now we switch to the automated payment data collection,
and we are facing different challenges.
- We use our understanding on the payment condition
based on those data collection,
and also make a decision on the
repair and the maintenance, and using the budget.
So if you have a problem,
accuracy or precision on the data collection,
then, you could make the wrong decisions.
- The quality or issues from the data are different
from the old visual days.
So that's why we need to have a different approach
to audit the data,
and to be able to identify the sections,
has a potential data quality issues.
- In our research, we actually look at other states,
we had a survey and also a literature review.
We reached out to all the 50 states,
and we also developed data analysis of procedures
for how text data can check the quality,
and find out the problems.
- This research team look at mainly
the data collected in 25 districts,
and then they evaluated the data in the last four years
to identify the issues in the data,
and then they recommend this stratified sampling approach,
and develop the indexes.
- We use San Antonio District as a case study
to implement our research results to see,
you know, if this is working.
And our research results seems like they're working.
- We are planning to implement the results,
and then we are gonna need to do a little bit fine tune
in term of how to incorporate into the system.
So there's a little bit more work for us to do,
but it's a great research, approach and the findings.
- How to use the money more effective
and more efficient is our concern.
And also the general public's concern.
And if we can use our data,
I mean research results to improve the data quality,
and help TxDOT engineers to make informed decisions,
so that way we can have a hope
to use the money more effectively,
and that also can contribute
to a better condition of the roads.
- [Narrator] For more information,
and to find the publications for this project,
please visit the TxDOT research library
at the link shown below.